Study Reveals Campus Publications Still Popular

Though the rest of the world may be cancelling their newspaper delivery, it seems as though college students are still picking up the old fashioned newspaper. In an article titled “Ink-stained students: Georgetown University’s Hoya newspaper is a microcosm of campus journalism” that appeared in the Washington Post last April, writer Karen Houppert examined student published newspapers on campus across the country, and supported the idea that, for the most part, “student newspapers…have not seen the same drop in readership experienced by most professional papers.”

It’s a conflict of messages for most students; being told that as communication students, we need all the writing experience we can find while also hearing about the rise of social media and the simultaneous decline of print readership among the public.

Many students might assume that work published for a student newspaper or magazine goes unnoticed. And many students, as well as the general public, also assume that all newspapers and magazines will soon become published exclusively online.

Houppert also made the discovery that “Eighty-nine percent of surveyed students said they liked the convenience of accessing the news without having to turn on a device or seek Internet access. They described print as ‘more portable.’” She quotes Tammy Nelson, vice president of marketing and research for Alloy Media and Marketing, as saying “While we’ve seen some growth in the online readership since 2008, it doesn’t seem to have come at the expense of print readership.” The same students walking to class with their iPod headphones on, toting laptops, with Blackberrys and iPhones in hand are holding the Marquette Tribune under their arm and reading it in print.

Though the real world may be dismissing paper copies of their news, college students, who ironically are stereotyped as being far too invested in the Internet and electronic devices, are not too busy to pick up a paper copy of their campus newspaper. It is comforting to know that students writing for campus publications still have a huge voice in their communities, and in the ever expanding media obsessed world – there is still room for reading print.

Lauren Haberkorn is a junior studying Corporate Communication in the Diederich College of CommunicationTweet

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1 Response to “Study Reveals Campus Publications Still Popular”

How can this be transferred back to the real world? I agree about portability. As a frequent user of technology, I enjoy grabbing a paper and reading something simple that’s not moving and not emitting light.